The Witch Prickers is my debut release for Pink Dolphin Music, with more singles to follow during this year.

Between the years of 1645 and 1646 ‘fingerman’ Matthew Hopkins and ‘Witch-Pricker’ John Sterne were responsible for the condemnations and executions of some 230 alleged witches.
They sent more people to the gallows than all the other witch-hunters in England during the previous 160 years.
They were accompanied by four women who performed the pricking, “witch prickers” pricked the accused with knives and special needles.
Pricking was an excruciatingly painful ordeal to endure and involved the use of evil looking pins, needles and bodkins to pierce the skin looking for insensitive spots that didn’t bleed. If any were found they would then be interpreted as a mark of the Devil.
In 1646 they visited my home town of King’s Lynn, records show that they paid Hopkins £15 for ‘clearing the town of witches’ at a time when the average daily wage was only 2.5p.
Matthew Hopkins ghost is now said to frequent the pond at Mistley near to the city of Colchester.